Feminist Gloria Steinem said young women only support Bernie Sanders because they want attention from boys, a remark she’s now trying to explain and qualify. Despite media frothing over feminist icons “scolding” young women,as the New York Times put it, and telling Sanders supporters “shame on you” the Steinem remark isn’t all that shocking.

Steinem appeared on Bill Maher’s show last to promote her new book, My Life on the Road, and shared her feelings about female activists.

Maher and Steinem photo/ screenshot

“I find the young women very activist and they’re way more feminist,” Steinem said. “We were, like, 12 crazy ladies in the beginning, and now it’s the majority. I do think that gratitude never radicalized anybody. I did not say thank you for the vote. I got mad on the basis of what was happening to me, and I think that that’s true of young women too. So they’re mad as hell because they’re graduating in debt, and they’re gonna earn a million dollars less over their lifetime to pay it back, they’re mad about what’s happening to them.”

Then Maher pressed her on Sanders versus Clinton, saying that young women “really don’t like Hillary.” Steinem responded that overall, women and African-American voters strongly support Clinton, and that, unlike men, “women get more radical as we get older.”

“Men tend to get more conservative because they gain power as they age, and women tend to get more radical because they lose power as they age,” Steinem said. “It’s not fair to measure most women by the standard of most men, because they’re gonna get more activist as they grow older, and when you’re young, you’re thinking, Where are the boys, the boys are with Bernie.” (emphasis added, The Dispatch)

Steinem “suggested younger women were just backing Mr. Sanders so that they could meet young men,” alleged the Times. According to Politico, “Feminist icon Gloria Steinem said that young women are supporting Bernie Sanders because they’re looking for boys.”

One group of Sanders supporters even launched a petition against her, petulantly demanding that Steinem issue a mea culpa — “we demand that you admit your mistake and apologize” were the exact words in the petition.

On her Facebook page, Steinem has offered this statement/apology suggesting that she both misspoke and has been misunderstood:

In a case of talk-show Interruptus, I misspoke on the Bill Maher show recently, and apologize for what’s been misinterpreted as implying young women aren’t serious in their politics. What I had just said on the same show was the opposite: young women are active, mad as hell about what’s happening to them, graduating in debt, but averaging a million dollars less over their lifetimes to pay it back. Whether they gravitate to Bernie or Hillary, young women are activist and feminist in greater numbers than ever before.